An analog-to-digital conversion circuit converts an input analog voltage to a digital translation thereof. Since the input analog voltage typically varies with time, the analog-to-digital conversion circuit typically samples the input analog voltage at many points as time passes. At each sample point, an analog-to-digital-converter (ADC) within the analog-to-digital conversion circuit generates a set number of bits. These bits are a digital representation of the magnitude of the input analog voltage relative to a reference voltage (and sometimes also relative to an offset voltage). With the known values of the reference and offset voltages and the digital representation of the input analog voltage, the analog-to-digital conversion circuit generates the digital translation of the input analog voltage for each sample point.
The analog-to-digital conversion circuit generally provides a greater resolution, and thus measurement accuracy, of the input analog voltage with a greater number of sample points in a given time interval. The number of sample points in a given time interval is typically limited by how fast the analog-to-digital conversion circuit can generate the digital translation for each sample point. The analog-to-digital conversion circuit also provides greater accuracy with a greater number of bits (i.e. higher resolution) in the digital representations generated by the ADC. However, an ADC that generates more such bits generally takes more time to do so and/or takes up more physical space than an ADC that generates fewer such bits. The problem is, therefore, that there is generally a negative tradeoff between the desirable higher accuracy/resolution of the analog-to-digital conversion circuit and the undesirable slower speed and/or larger size and cost of the analog-to-digital conversion circuit.